Chapter Text
Quirks.
The first incident was in Qing Qing City, China, when an extraordinary child was born who radiated light like a living lantern.
After that, reports to people with superpower popped up all across the globe. No one knew what was causing these quirks.
Before long, the supernatural became the total normal. The world became a superhuman society with about 80% of the population possessing some uncanny ability.
Our streets looked like scenes from comic books, and while cities and countries swirled with chaos and confusion, a new profession dominated our collective consciousness. The world was enveloped in a whole new age of heroes.
Starting off as a wave of vigilantes, hero work had become a dominating job, bringing glory to all who chose the life risking job of danger and power. Fighting villainy with a smile on their face.
Adrien Agreste wanted to be just like them.
But life was not fair, and not all men were created equal.
“M-Mama said I can’t.. hang out with.. with you cause you’re unexce-cepthional. I’m s-sorry Adrikins..!”
“Chloe!”
Adrien fell back on his butt as Chloe stared down at him with wide red teary eyes. Her small four year old hands were shaking.
“Go away Adrikins! You’re just a- a- a quirkless loser!” Chloe cried, turning away and running. Adrien sniffled, hands trembling with pain as they dug into the dirt, mixed with his tears and the few drops of the blood from his scraped palms.
“Chloe, wait up!” Adrien shouted, chasing after her back.
In this world, it was the strong and exceptional that made heroes. Chloe knew this, Adrien knew this, every person, quirkless or not knew this. And Adrien was the lesser.
His father and mother, both the heads of Agreste, one of the biggest names in equipment, fashion, and costumes for the most exceptional heroes, ensured a beautiful, rich, and safe future for him.
But that’s not what Adrien wanted.
No. He wanted to save people. He wanted to be a hero. He wanted to show off his parent’s work and prove his worth. Prove he deserved their love, despite being a… a…
“..Quirkless waste of space!” Chloe sobbed, stumbling away down the street “Leave me alone!”
The day Adrien lost his future, lost his dreams of being a hero, lost his best friend, was that fateful day. Where the doctor sat him down with his worried looking parents and muttered those sad sad words-
“Oh yeah, the kid is quirkless.” The doctor deadpanned
Young Adrien paled with shock and his life was sealed. Word got around, as he was of course the son of big name Gabriel and Emilie Agreste, and there wasn’t even a moment Adrien could redeem the mistake that was he. The weakness he held. The disappointment he no doubt caused for his mom.. and his dad..
Adrien yelped as Chloe shoved him backwards again. He looked up weakly as the girl stared down at him with her hands crackling with golden energy. Her quirk. Her sign of exceptionalism.
She looked like she was going to raise her arms and attack him with it, but they only fell at her side and she turned tail- running away again.
“Chloe, wait up!” Adrien cried, stumbling after her.
“I’m gonna be a hero, Adrikins! A quirkless person like you can’t ever be a hero!” Chloe exclaimed “Just stay in the dirt where mama said you belong!”
His mom and dad pulled him out of school, they knew the moment he stepped into class only ridicule would be met.
The jeers online about how the great Gabriel Agreste, once known as the moth hero Morpho before his hero retirement, and his wife, Emilie Agreste, still known as the peahen hero Paon, produced a mistake child were feared by the two. Terrified if what was online would only be a fraction of what Adrien would hear with his own ears.
Adrien remembers those nights, curled on his mother’s lap sobbing. Asking why he didn’t have a quirk like her or his father. Why he couldn’t help her in her hero work. Asking if he made a mistake.
And there his mother would be, softly petting through his hair, her gentle green eyes warming his aching heart.
“No Adrien, you made no mistake..” She whispered “I’m.. not sure if you can become a hero.. but.. you can still cheer your mama on and help others that want to be heroes too!
And so Adrien opted for that, despite how much it hurt. He’d watch every channel possible with his mom in it, watching in awe as she saved people. Doing exactly what he wanted. And he couldn’t help but keep imagining what if he was right next to her. Beating bad guys and helping her, dressed in only the best gear his father would design with beaming pride-
-maybe Chloe would be there too. Watching his back as they worked together as well. Maybe opening an agency together as the best heroes ever.
He’d watch in amazement at the other heroes running past the screen. His eyes shining with awe as he squeezed the cat plushie in his arms at the sight of France’s Number 1, Plagg. God he wanted to be just like him too. Minus the cat head. No one knew why the number one hero had a cat head. It definitely wasn’t a fur suit.
But Adrien would look down at his plain hands and remember reality. Remember the truth. Remember how his only interactions with Chloe now would be glimpses of her hair from across the halls of the rich parties her parents would throw.
So he’d stare at the tv, pausing to look from his homework, his senseless doodles of costumes he knew he’d never get to wear, cheering Paon on with his father.
Until the day she didn’t get up from an attack.
And his father screamed in horror.
The world mourned when Paon, Emilie Agreste, his mother… died in a villain attack. As the monster fled from the scene and she bled, holding up a barrier that was about to crush a family, barely surviving once they got it off her, before collapsing in exhaustion. Never opening her eyes.
Adrien once lived in a world where someone was there to tell him it was okay if he wasn’t a hero because they would always be there for them, he believed in that world, he believed that person was right.
“Father…” Adrien quietly murmured
“You will never be a hero, Adrien…” Gabriel spat, making Adrien flinch as the man turned to him with wide tearful eyes, his hands shaking over the closed coffin of his wife, of Adrien’s mother. “Never ever.”
That world was shattered, buried deep within the ground at age six. And that person, was dead.
But once upon a time,
Adrien was told he couldn’t be a hero. And he believed that. He settled for cheering the people around him on, hoping he could get some satisfaction in watching the people he loved live his dreams in a way he couldn’t reach. He wore his father’s designs that he could feel the lack of heart in with the loss of his mother. He put on a smile he knew was fake.
But not anymore. Because even though his father didn’t anymore, Adrien believed in heroes. Adrien believed in heroes. And he believed he could do good!
But that didn’t matter in this reality. Cause here Adrien was again, standing with his hands balled at his hips, age fourteen by his father’s side as the people, exceptional or not they were just rich, bustled around them, shaking his father’s stiff hand and sucking their asses up in his presence.
Only once did he see Chloe and only once this entire month was Adrien able to have a conversation with her.
“People will look at me weird if I’m seen around you, you should just go back to your dad, Adrien.”
Better than being called a useless idiot, he’ll take it!
Adrien sighed.
Who is he kidding, that hit him like a truck. Making him cringe in pain from the stinging in his old friend’s words. Seeing the company that had already begun to approach the young heiress though, Adrien left Chloe to stand in her spotlight of superiority. The luxurious fountain behind them trickling it’s jewel like water all the same.
Adrien had to watch Chloe grow from the sidelines and position right in his father’s shadow. Getting to hear every little success she got to have.
How her future was secured in her mother’s hero agency. How her seat among the many at Francoise DUPONT, one of the greatest Hero Training Schools in all of Europe was just waiting for her with her recommendation letter in hand, miles out of his own, quirkless, reach.
And that’s when it happened.
“Mr Plagg.”
“Agreste. Always a pleasure. Who were your cooks here? They made the best cheese tonight and I’m thinkin’ about hiring them”
“Ah the Cesaires. Quite talented.”
Adrien’s eyes widened as he looked up. And his heart began to pound.
Standing before him, tall, practically glimmering in his own power and status; his dark greasy fur flowing around his neck like a lion’s man and his whiskers twitching every few moments, was him. Plagg. The number one hero of France. Nay, perhaps all of Europe.
Thin emerald eyes thinned with a polite expression as he reached a hand out and shook Gabriel’s hand. Adrien could feel his blood rush through his veins in absolute awe to be in the man’s sheer presence and his thought began to flutter through his brain.
It’s him. Plagg!
“Ah, is this your boy, Agreste?”
“Hm? Yes. It is. Adrien, be respectful, Plagg is a very valuable patron of my work.”
Holy shiiiiiiit.
Adrien caught Chloe’s eye across the hall and mouthed ‘Are you seeing this?’ to which his childhood friend raised an eyebrow before seeing who was in front of him and he watched as her jaw went slack.
“Adrien.” His Father coughed roughly. Adrien immediately locked back into place and looked up at the Pro Hero and immediately shook his gloved hand.
“P-Plagg! You’re the Number One Hero! It’s- it’s incredible , to meet you.” Adrien felt a wide grin stretch across his face, the first one in a long time. “I remember staying up late to watch recordings of you, you are, awsome.”
Plagg’s cat face twitched, though he gave a toothy smile.
“You didn’t tell me your son was a fanboy, Gabe. Should’ve said so sooner. You want an autograph kid?”
Adrien really hopes he didn’t damage Plagg’s ears from his high pitched squealing, though one look from his father’s cold eyes shut him up immediately. He gulped, and gave Plagg a polite forced smile.
“N-No thank you. I’m good.”
“Ah bullshit-“
“ Plagg .” Gabriel’s voice lowered aggressively, his father’s thin wings raising slightly in aggravation.
“-Please Gabe, let the kid have something.” Plagg shrugged him off with ease with a happy wave of a hand as he adjusted his suit. “Go get something to write kid, or I’ll just take a sharpie and splatter my name on your forehead.”
Gabriel growled at the Destruction Hero as Adrien nodded and began to search his person for anything- before pausing a little.
“Um, Mr Plagg- sir. I have.. I have a question for you.” Adrien quietly spoke, knowing his father’s eyes were burning into him. He knew his answer was so redundantly easy, clear, but god he just needed to hear this from him. From Plagg.
“What’s that, kid?” Plagg asked, his head tilting to the side.
Adrien pursed his lips nervously “I- Is it possible? For me to become a hero? Even without a quirk?”
Plagg was silent. His built body looming over the young model like a pillar. He opened his mouth a few times, but remained quiet. Gabriel just tsked, looking away from the two as he busied himself with someone else..
Adrien’s hands were clammy at his sides and shakily, he began to search for something the hero could write with again.
There was no ‘yes’, there was no ‘no’, just silence. And it burned into Adrien’s chest.
With a quick sign and ‘Enjoy the rest of the party’, Plagg disappeared from Adrien’s sights. His back turned from the young boy’s face, as he was left to stand in shame.
“Adrien.”
He looked up at his father with sad eyes, as his shoulders fell slack, but nothing replaced his cold, dead eyes.
”Yes?” He answered, hoping for some kind of warm response.
“We’re going. The car is outside.”
“…Yes, Father.”
Sitting down into the dark leather seat of his limo, Adrien stared tiredly at the small marked handkerchief in his hands as The Gorilla clicked the door shut, making his way to the front of the car.
His father would of course, not be joining them… Guess he just had better things to do at the party, without his son to embarrass him…
Adrien’s face scrunched up in despair as he covered his face. God. Why did you make me this way?
Then by the time they reached second street, the world shattered once again, and Adrien’s eyes widened as the banquet hall’s entrance exploded in flames behind them.
The Gorilla hit the breaks immediately from shock and turned around in silent horror, Adrien opened the window and stuck his head out, watching as multiple people around shrieked at the sudden flames engulfing the entrance and windows.
A loud cackle protruded from the flames, as what could be seen as a visible face came filtering from the fire’s smoke and embers.
“STAY BACK!”
“VILLAIN!”
Adrien’s breath choked in his throat as he watched his worst nightmares happen right in front of him.
“FATHER!” He screamed, but suddenly they were driving again. He was forced to slip back inside as the windows closed on him, and he banged his hands against the glass “What are you doing?! Stop it! He’s still in there! STOP IT!”
But The Gorilla did not turn around, driving all the way home back to the cold unharmed Agreste Estate and meeting Nathalie at the door, locking Adrien in his room with a slam.
Safe and sound. Back in his little world. Adrien stared wide eyed at his locked door, tears falling down his face as he was overwhelmed by his emotions.
Fear. Hate. Bitterness. Sorrow. Despair.
But then his eyes fell on his handkerchief. Signed in black ink in his idol’s hand writing. Plagg. He didn’t say yes to him. But damn it all he didn’t say no either...
Once upon a time Adrien lived in a world where he couldn’t be a hero because he was quirkless.
...But not anymore.